Iowa couple awarded $3.25 million after adoptive son reclaimed by birth parents killed by biological father
JESSICA SCHLADEBECK AUG 22, 2017 9:45 AM
A jury awarded an Iowa couple $3.25 million after their adopted son was murdered by his biological father just weeks after his birth parents reclaimed custody.
The lawsuit filed by Rachel and Heidi McFarland in August 2014 alleged their former attorney, Jason Rieper, led the couple to believe the mother of the child they’d adopted signed a release-of-custody document.
Because he never got the mother’s signature, the infant was returned to his birth mother and later murdered by his father.
The couple had arranged to adopt the child from Markeya Atkins, a teenager Rachel worked with, and even coached her through her birth in December 2013. The McFarland’s, who’d never considered adoption an option, named their newborn Gabriel.
“We didn’t know if we could do artificial insemination, and it seemed like a route we could afford,” Rachel McFarland told People. “The birth mom didn’t care if we were a same-sex couple. It just seemed too good to be true — and it was too good to be true.”
Still, at the time, she said, “Me and Heidi were super excited. We thought it was destiny. We felt lucky.”
But everything changed 78 days later, when Rieper told them Atkins wanted her child back.
“[Rieper] said there is nothing left for us to do: she wants him back and you have to give him back,” Rachel recalled.
Atkins at the time said: “It’s like after I gave the baby to them, they didn’t care.”
Five weeks later, the couple — who have since become parents to a pair of daughters — learned of the child’s death as it flashed across their television screen. While the news broadcast never directly named Gabriel, Heidi recognized the home and its address from old doctor bills.
Police found baby Gabriel dead in his home on April 22, 2014. Atkins told investigators at the time she found him in her apartment “alone, pale, wet and foaming from his mouth and nose,” after leaving him alone with his birth father, Drew James Wheeler Smith, the Des Moines Register reported.
The father, now 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2015, according to the newspaper.
Rieper’s attorney, David L Brown told People they’re looking to challenge the result, claiming the lawyer had no sway over the teen mother.
“You can’t control the emotion of a birth mom, and you can’t control the emotions of a 16-year-old birth mom,” he said. “At the end, the kid wasn’t going to do it and the suggestion that Jason was to force her to do it would be unethical for him.”
But Roxanne Conlin, who represented the McFarland’s pushed back, explaining in a Facebook post that he “didn’t get the basic document signed by the birth mother in a timely fashion.
“After having him for 78 days, they had to give him to her when she asked for him. If the lawyer had done what he was supposed to do, the birth mother would have signed the document called a release of custody and 4 days after she signed it, it would have been impossible for her or the baby’s father to take Gabriel away from them.”
JESSICA SCHLADEBECK AUG 22, 2017 9:45 AM
A jury awarded an Iowa couple $3.25 million after their adopted son was murdered by his biological father just weeks after his birth parents reclaimed custody.
The lawsuit filed by Rachel and Heidi McFarland in August 2014 alleged their former attorney, Jason Rieper, led the couple to believe the mother of the child they’d adopted signed a release-of-custody document.
Because he never got the mother’s signature, the infant was returned to his birth mother and later murdered by his father.
The couple had arranged to adopt the child from Markeya Atkins, a teenager Rachel worked with, and even coached her through her birth in December 2013. The McFarland’s, who’d never considered adoption an option, named their newborn Gabriel.
“We didn’t know if we could do artificial insemination, and it seemed like a route we could afford,” Rachel McFarland told People. “The birth mom didn’t care if we were a same-sex couple. It just seemed too good to be true — and it was too good to be true.”
Still, at the time, she said, “Me and Heidi were super excited. We thought it was destiny. We felt lucky.”
But everything changed 78 days later, when Rieper told them Atkins wanted her child back.
“[Rieper] said there is nothing left for us to do: she wants him back and you have to give him back,” Rachel recalled.
Atkins at the time said: “It’s like after I gave the baby to them, they didn’t care.”
Five weeks later, the couple — who have since become parents to a pair of daughters — learned of the child’s death as it flashed across their television screen. While the news broadcast never directly named Gabriel, Heidi recognized the home and its address from old doctor bills.
Police found baby Gabriel dead in his home on April 22, 2014. Atkins told investigators at the time she found him in her apartment “alone, pale, wet and foaming from his mouth and nose,” after leaving him alone with his birth father, Drew James Wheeler Smith, the Des Moines Register reported.
The father, now 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2015, according to the newspaper.
Rieper’s attorney, David L Brown told People they’re looking to challenge the result, claiming the lawyer had no sway over the teen mother.
“You can’t control the emotion of a birth mom, and you can’t control the emotions of a 16-year-old birth mom,” he said. “At the end, the kid wasn’t going to do it and the suggestion that Jason was to force her to do it would be unethical for him.”
But Roxanne Conlin, who represented the McFarland’s pushed back, explaining in a Facebook post that he “didn’t get the basic document signed by the birth mother in a timely fashion.
“After having him for 78 days, they had to give him to her when she asked for him. If the lawyer had done what he was supposed to do, the birth mother would have signed the document called a release of custody and 4 days after she signed it, it would have been impossible for her or the baby’s father to take Gabriel away from them.”
